ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE. To 11 April.
London.
ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE
by Joe Orton.
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 1) To 11 April 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm.
Runs2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632 (£3 transaction fee).
www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios (transaction fee).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 31 January.
An entertaining Mr Sloane.
In the sixties shocking respectability was what an artist got up to do in the morning. New art was for the young; their shocked elders could be written-off, if not scribbled all over.
Orton’s strength lay in expressing the outrageous with formal elegance. Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward lie behind the shaping of his dialogue. And the plumping-down of apt yet unexpected words in precisely the right place recalls Harold Pinter.
That’s clear in Nick Bagnall’s revival, which has some hilarious performances but plays for story. It makes the point that, like Loot and in a lesser way, What the Butler Saw Orton’s farce relates to crime. The elegant language goes with threat (the scenes between Mr Sloane – whose first name we never learn – and old Kemp have a Homecoming-like menace).
Orton’s also subverting a classic comedy scenario, where the elders put spokes in the wheels of young love. Here the old ones latch on to Sloane, who’s out for what he can get, until he finds he’s got himself into their net. Classically, a locket reveals the orphan as a wealthy person fitted to marry their heart’s desire. Here, despite talk of lost babies and orphans, the locket remains shut, an image of Sloane’s ultimate possession by Kath and Ed.
Mathew Horne’s dyed-blonde Sloane plays down the character’s suggestive sexuality for an innocence that seems psychotic when it suddenly, sullenly turns to violence. Richard Bremmer’s Kemp is a fine comic study in grizzly age; Simon Paisley Day’s Ed has a brisk business-like stance and the moustache to go with it; the performance is a fine study in outward authority hiding secret desires.
But the revival’s highlight is Imelda Staunton’s Kath. Barely higher than the seated Sloane as she stands by him, she’s the model of what lies behind mean suburban curtains. At one point she does hide behind them, setting-up her front room’s nearest to soft lights and sweet music before emerging in would-be provocative undress.
Effortlessly lighting upon the most suggestive vocal tone or physical position around Sloane, with apparent unconsciousness, it’s a performance of peerless comic subtlety.
Kath: Imelda Staunton.
Sloane: Mathew Horne.
Kemp: Richard Bremmer.
Ed: Simon Paisley Day.
Director: Nick Bagnall.
Designer: Peter McKintosh.
Lighting: Simon Mills.
Sound: Mike Furness.
Costume: Colin Richmond.
Dialect coach: Neil Swain.
Fight director: Kate Waters.
Assistant director: Will Mortimer.
2009-02-01 23:13:05